When her one-year-old kitten Ziggy vanished in 2011, Ruth Orme of North Hertfordshire, England, was devastated.
“NEVER did I think I'd ever see this cat again,” she said in a Facebook post this month when she was reunited with the feline a decade after he went missing. Even though the cat went on quite a long adventure, Orme said it was as if he had never left.
“We’re sooooo unbelievably happy to have him home i cant even put into words [sic],” she said.
According to Metro U.K., Orme said her family had the cat for just under a year when it left home “as usual” but didn’t return. Though they searched for Ziggy at the time, their efforts were unsuccessful and Orme had all but given up hope of seeing the cat again.
As suddenly as he disappeared, Ziggy reappeared again this summer at Royston industrial estate, around a 20-minute walk from where he went missing. Orme said “some lads found him,” and a video of the cat ended up on Facebook.
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To make sure it really was the elusive Ziggy, the cat’s microchip was scanned and it was confirmed: Orme’s pet had retuned. He came back home in good health, with a few signs that he had been outside for some time.
“He hasn’t changed much at all and we’re obviously in shock – super grateful he’s back home,” Orme said. She added that he looks the same and that he has the same cuddly temperament he left with 11 years ago.
“We can’t tell if he recognizes us because he was always such a friendly cat, but he’s been sitting on our laps and purring happily,” explained Orme, who believes he may have been living as a stray, getting food from local households.
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Ziggy also got a surprise upon his return to Orme’s household – a fellow feline housemate name Freddie. Orme said they don’t seem too “fussed” by each other.
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